American Exceptualism Rudy
Giuliani was espousing his opinion to Fox News that Barack Obama did not
love America and didn’t brag enough about “American Exceptionalism.”

Fur Is Not Chic When my 25-pound
dog stepped in a toothed steel leg hold trap a few ft off the trail, I
learned how “unchic” fur is. I had to carry her out two miles to get to a
vet.

Which Is More Dangerous? Just
a couple of thoughts I had in response to the letters by Gordon Lee
Dean and Jarin Weber in the Feb. 23 issue. Mr. Dean claims that there
have been zero deaths from the measles in the past ten years.

Real Action on Climate In
“Climate Madness” in the Feb. 9 issue, the writer points out that
scientists are all but unanimous and that large numbers of people agree:
global warming poses a threat to future generations.

Real Science Wolfgang
Pauli, the Nobel Prize winning Austrian-born theoretical physicist, was
known not only for his work in postulating the existence of the
neutrino but feared for his razor-edged humor.

The war we cannot win

The War We Cannot WinThe White House has announced they are going to take a new approach tothe countrys endless battle against drugs and drug use, focusing theirefforts on a public health approach  education and rehabilitation instead of continuing the futility of a criminal justice approach. Maybethis is a good idea given that weve been getting our asses kicked in thehalf century long war on drugs.Politicians absolutely love this war on drugs. It gives them a chance,especially those who never served in a real war, the opportunity to talktough, use a lot of military jargon, pose for photo-ops with various drugtask forces and posture for campaigns.It was President Eisenhower who first mentioned waging a war against drugaddiction way back in 1954. That approach might have actually made somesense but subsequent politicians wouldnt leave well enough alone. Richard Nixon took things up several notches with his declaration of a waron drugs in 1969. It was primarily an over-reaction to the Woodstockgeneration, which he hated and never understood. Anti-war protestorsgathering in front of the White House and on the Capital Mall as marijuanasmoke wafted through the air very nearly drove him insane as the Nixontapes still being released prove. His profane responses to those dirty,long-haired hippies (he really believed we were all commies) now seemalmost comical but the consequences of his drug war have not been at allamusing. The creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in1973 didnt help much. And any politician who stood up to the excesses ofever more intrusive and Draconian anti-drug laws did so at the peril totheir own careers.We started the war on drugs losing and its fair to say we havent won asingle day since.There is little evidence weve done much to decrease usage of anything. Drug-related crime is more a function of the expensive black market drugprices than the drugs themselves. And this war has been astonishinglyexpensive. No one seems to be able to put a specific price tag on it butmost everyone agrees it is in the trillions of dollars spent.Law enforcement has been dutifully fulfilling their end of the bargain atgreat risk to themselves enforcing laws they did not create and fighting atide they cannot stop. Nearly half our prisoners in federal custody arethere on drug related crimes. State prisons are a bit less than that butnot much. Never mind that the costs of imprisoning someone for a year arenearly twice that of an average drug rehabilitation program. Even worse,we typically put drug offenders in prison for several years while a decentrehab program might take only several months. And never mind that druglaws have allowed authorities to seize homes, bank accounts and otherproperty without ever charging the owners of that property with any crimeat all.Sending folks to prison or seizing their property lets politicians betough on drugs while supporting rehabilitation programs makes those samepoliticians vulnerable to accusations of being soft on drugs. So thelosing war rages on.What is especially ironic in all of this is the deadliest and costliestdrugs are perfectly legal. Alcohol and nicotine together kill hundreds ofthousands every year, destroy even more lives and cost us billions andbillions of dollars annually in lost productivity and healthcare expenses.Politicians do little about those drugs except seize the opportunity toslap new taxes on them. Perfectly legal prescription drugs rack up moreoverdose deaths every year than all the illegal drugs combined. And thatdoesnt even count the 100,000 or so annual deaths in hospitals fromaccidental drug overdoses, fatal drug interactions and adverse reactions. We should have learned our lesson from the experience of Prohibition.That did little to curb alcohol consumption but it did give us AlCapone and the emergence of the American Mafia, much as the war ondrugs has given us violent drug cartels and a wide variety of streetthugs.None of which is to suggest illegal drugs are benign. They most surelyare not. They are especially destructive when ingested by young peoplewhose brains and bodies are still developing.But the war on drugs has been at least as bad as the drugs themselves. Wedo know how to reduce usage without filling up our prisons or encouragingdrug gangs. Weve had tremendous success with anti-tobacco effortsthrough a long, steady public education effort that has finally madetobacco use decidedly uncool. We also know that public healthinterventions and rehabilitation programs do work.This fall California will decide whether or not to legalize marijuana onceand for all and apply a significant state tax to its sale. At least partof that money will be used in consistent public education campaigns todiscourage children from pot use and intervention and rehab programs tohelp those who decide to do it anyway. It will save California billionsof dollars now being spent on the criminal justice system and earn themhundreds of millions in tax revenues.The public is ready to stop the futility of our war on drugs. Thepoliticians, as is almost always the case, still lag behind. But it istime for the tough-talking pols to admit their rhetoric and laws have donelittle and begin a strategic retreat from a war we cannot and will notwin.

Stephen Tuttle is a political consultant who formerly wrote for theArizona Republic.